The 5 Hardest-Hit Balls of the Twins 2023 Season

As a team, the Twins produced some of the noisiest contact in the league last year. They ranked fifth in the majors in average exit velocity (89.4 MPH), thanks to the American's League's top barrel rate (6.4%). This was very much by design for an offense that made a point out of selling out for power, setting the all-time strikeout record in the process.

Within that, there were some truly dazzling individual feats of bat-to-ball punishment. These were the five hardest-hit balls in play from Twins hitters in 2023, according to Statcast's exit velocity metric.

1. Ryan Jeffers, May 29th: 117.4 MPH (Home Run)
The hardest-hit ball of the 2023 Twins season happened to come in an absolutely crucial spot, making this rocket off the bat of Jeffers one of the more special moments in the entire campaign.

Opening a series against the Astros in Houston, the Twins blew an early lead by coughing up four runs in the seventh. They trailed by one in the ninth, when Royce Lewis (who'd hit a three-run homer earlier in the game) came through with a two-out RBI single. Jhoan Durán held the Astros scoreless in the bottom half, and up came Jeffers to lead off the 10th, with Max Kepler standing on second.

On the very first pitch, Houston reliever Bryan Abreu left a hanger over the heart of the plate, and Jeffers was ready. He destroyed the ball for a game-winning home run, on the hardest-hit ball by any Twins hitter during the Statcast era (dating back to 2015).

2. Byron Buxton, August 1st: 116.9 MPH (Double)
This one is kind of fun, for a couple reasons. I wrote recently about how Buxton's underlying metrics still showed the signs of an elite power hitter who can be a game-changer if he comes back with a healthier knee. Case in point: Buxton produced the second-highest exit velocity of any Twins hitter in 2023 – and the highest of his entire career – in the final game he played. In fact, it was his very last regular-season at-bat.

In the eighth inning of their game against the Cardinals, Buxton faced left-hander John King. On a 2-1 count, he got a 94-MPH fastball down in the zone and ripped it into the left-center gap for a double that reached the wall in approximately two seconds. Buck left us with a lot of question marks in the wake of his tumultuous 2023 campaign, but one thing is clear: he can still mash with the best of 'em.

3. Matt Wallner, September 24th: 116.4 MPH (Double)
The rookie wasted little time in showing off his premier power tool as a big-leaguer, producing more than a dozen drives that were clocked at 110+ MPH in a 76-game debut. His highest reading came on September 24th, against Angels reliever Jose Marte, a low-sailing line drive off an 0-1 changeup that whizzed past the right fielder and to the wall. 'Double' was a generous scoring choice here, but would you have wanted to be right fielder Jo Adell on this?

4. Ryan Jeffers, August 5th: 115.8 MPH (Home Run)
Jeffers shows up again, with another laser-beam home run that cleared the playing field (barely) in an awful hurry. The catcher reached down for one below the knees from D-backs lefty Tyler Gilbert and yanked it into the flower bed atop the left field wall. Hopefully, seeing him twice in the top four here is helping to affirm in your mind what an incredibly strong, powerful hitter Jeffers is – a tremendous asset at the catcher position.

5. Byron Buxton, May 15th: 115.1 MPH (Double)
Despite being limited to 85 games and exclusively DH duty by a bad knee that never really improved, Buxton delivered two of the five hardest hits from Twins players in the 2023 season. His raw power simply cannot be contained. Here, in the ninth inning of a mid-May thriller against the Dodgers, he lashed a game-tying RBI double back up the middle off Dodgers closer Evan Phillips.

Yes, I said double back up the middle. Buxton's low liner whizzed past the left of second base and never slowed down on its way to the wall, giving the center fielder no chance to prevent an extra base given Buxton's wheels. When he's merely healthy enough to step onto the field, Byron Buxton is (still) good y'all!

Do you have a favorite feat of batsman strength from the 2023 Twins? If it's not represented here, feel free to share yours in the comments.